The jokes were in short supply this week and with good
reason. While Gaav may never have reached
the heights of Rezo 2.0, he did do a serious number on Lina and company. When anyone can make your beloved main
characters bleed for real, its time to get serious. What went down this week was an epic battle
that pitted monsters against dragons against sorcerers against swordsmen. Basically it was an all out brawl and we
haven’t even gotten to the season finale yet…in which case this was definitely
a good primer.
The big reveal of Xellos being one of the most powerful
monsters in existence shouldn’t come as a shock as there were plenty of obvious
hints and clues. Still, no longer
needing to “hide” his identity allowed the smiling priest to cut loose a bit
more. Though, for a guy who could mow
down an army of Dragons all on his own, having trouble against Gaavs
subordinate seemed iffy to me and detracted from the hype of Xellos’ true
power. Thankfully, Gaav destructive
power didn’t disappoint. Cutting off
Xellos’ arm and nearly killing Amelia were shocking moments that put everyone
on notice. This is the kind of bad news
that makes you think everyones card might be up. Factor in Lina’s epic use of the Ragna Blade
and the fact that Gaav survived it after everyone thought the battle was over
for good (very Dragon Ball Z Frieza Saga), and you had to wonder if things
could possibly get any worse.
Well…they did.
But before we get to yet another superb cliffhanger,
let’s talk about the reveals around the battle.
After a season of searching (and failing), Lina finally got to speak
with the Claire Bible and find out just what kind of power she’s been using to
her own ends. Finding out that the Giga
Slave and Ragna Blade both draw power from the ultimate evil, The Lord of
Nightmares, is a big shocker. It makes
me wonder how Lina learned the Giga Slave in the first place without knowing
this (the Ragna Blade less so cause she read it in a Claire Bible
manuscript…which surprisingly also left out the detail). Still, this truth, coupled with her scary
vision of death from last week, is going to seriously hamper what Lina can do
and might even have her questioning her own powers themselves.
Though that kind of questioning couldntve come at a worse
time. Turns out the little boy that
helped the Slayers get to the Claire Bible was also the new/true big bad of the
season: Hellmaster Phibrizzo. Im of two
minds on this. For one, the guys power
speaks for itself as he blew away Gaav with no problem…but he’s still in the
form of a little kid and that could make him more annoying than threatening, no
matter how powerful he is. Idk, having
little kids be the bad guy in an Anime usually never works because they end up
being more irritating than menacing.
However, Phibrizzo did manage to deal the ultimate blow
to Lina and give us the biggest cliffhanger yet: he kidnapped Gourry while a
weakened Lina was unable to save him.
This is gonna bring a lot of things to a head: the question of how
dangerous Lina’s ultimate attacks are and how far Lina is willing to go to save
her best friend and someone she might like more than she’ll admit. This feels like such a far cry from where we
were at this point in Season One. Even a
joke about justice and fake Gods from Amelia and Martina couldn’t offset just
how bad things had gotten for The Slayers.
I doubt Lina will take this lying down.
But as we get ready for the season finale, I have to ask: How the Hell
are they gonna win this one? We’ll find
out next week as we reach the conclusion of Slayers Next.
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